Originally Posted by
IBJoel
OK, so achievement badges have been popular in online gaming for 15+ years (and for 40 years if you want to count high score boards in arcade games). The average gamer is in their 30s and the average female gamer may even be in their mid-40s.
Likewise, "Flair" has been a staple of the world's largest forum community since as long as I can remember.
So your demeaning of badges as being for "cub scouts" is ageist in and of itself and simply out of touch. These badges in no way interfere with your ability to source information on the site and you're free to carry on doing that.
Generalizations for the win! I am a 54 year old gamer that reads Reddit. I agree that these compulsory badges are awful, nothing ageist about that (and the cub scout comment was harmless).
But this is not a democracy anyway and forums are a dying breed. This all started with the removal of trending plus the fact that the old fogeys here liked the clean, badgeless, flairless layout that we had forever. The only other forum I frequent is the Ars Technica ones where they have resisted all the 'enhacements' that seem necessary nowadays.
Anyways, I know my engagement with this side is decreasing as the 'features' keep increasing, I guess my profile is not in their desired parameters for their model.